Over the last 500 issues Rugby League World has brought you interviews with all of the game’s biggest names. But on occasion we have been lucky enough to track down some celebrity rugby league fans that have been more than happy to talk to us and tell us why they love the greatest game. Here are six such people that have graced our pages over the years, with may of them going on to play an off-field role within the sport.
JOHN PRESCOTT
RUGBY LEAGUE WORLD ISSUE 364
Any magazine showing potential leanings to a particular political party could lead to a few raised eyebrows, but when Labour’s former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott appeared on these pages in August 2011, it was purely to talk about rugby league. At the time he was an associate director at Hull KR and spoke to the late Dave Hadfield about his memories of attending his first game at the old Craven Park, his thoughts on the Willie Mason saga and any potential class war with rugby union.
MATTHEW LEWIS
RUGBY LEAGUE WORLD ISSUE 374
Perhaps best known for the role of Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter film series, Matthew Lewis has never left his Yorkshire roots behind and remains a huge Leeds Rhinos supporter. His love of the club saw him spend some time as vice-president of the Leeds Rhinos Foundation and that was when Rugby League World caught up with him in June 2012 – just a year after the final Potter film. He is still a trustee with the Foundation and also had the honour of narrating the audio version of Rob Burrow’s autobiography “Too Many Reasons to live”.
CLARE BALDING
RUGBY LEAGUE WORLD ISSUE 480
Clare Balding is perhaps one of the most respected broadcasters this country has, and what’s more, she genuinely loves rugby league. After spending years fronting the BBC’s coverage of the Challenge Cup, she was invited to be President of the RFL. Her time in that role coincided with the World Cup in 2022, when she attended as many games as she could. Just as she was about to hand her ceremonial chains over to Sir Lindsay Hoyle, she sat down with RLW ahead of the January 2023 issue to explain why she loves this sport so much.
ALISTAIR & JONNY BROWNLEE
RUGBY LEAGUE WORLD ISSUE 379
They might not have been involved in Paris, but Alistair and Jonny Brownlee were two of the big stars of the London 2012 Olympics. Hailing from Leeds it is perhaps no surprise they are both rugby league and Rhinos fans. Despite being in high demand after their Triathlon medals at the games, they still gave up their time to speak to Rugby League World. It was one of the interviews Jamie Jones-Buchanan carried out in his time writing for this publication, and it wasn’t totally clear who was most in awe of who.
ADAM HILLS
RUGBY LEAGUE WORLD ISSUE 471
Comedian and presenter of ‘The Last Leg’ Adam Hills has never hidden the fact he’s a rugby league fan. He helped set up the Physical Disability game that is now played across numerous clubs, and later went on to play for Australia in the PDRL World Cup. So he was perhaps the obvious choice of presenter when Channel Four got the rights to show Super League games in 2022. Although he wasn’t too sure about that at first, as he explained to us in April of that year after a successful first couple of games on air.
TINA TURNER
OPEN RUGBY ISSUE 123
Ok, we know this one might be a bit of a cheat as we didn’t actually have an interview with her inside, but having rock goddess Tina Turner on the cover in March 1990 is something fairly special. It wasn’t just for show though as we did have something inside about her involvement with the upcoming season in Australia when her hit ‘The Best’ was being used as the focal point of the advertising campaign. It was the second time she had been involved like this and came back for more as she loved what she had seen of league.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 500 (September 2024)
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